Pittsburgh Communities
Need Federal Prosecutors to
Oversee City Hall and the
University of Pittsburgh

City Council Public Comments
October 17, 2018

Two weeks ago, I came here and said: Pittsburgh communities need federal prosecutors to oversee city hall. After attending a community meeting last week concerning the University of Pittsburgh's Comprehensive Master Plan, I now expand that to: Pittsburgh communities need federal prosecutors to oversee city hall and the University of Pittsburgh.

Campus Advantage, a developer from Texas, is currently constructing a massive student housing project on Forbes Avenue. At last week's meeting, I asked a representative of the university: Why did the university support that project? The shocking reply was that the university was not in support of that development, but could not say so publicly. I asked why not. The reply was that the university needs to maintain good relationships with developers because the developers put properties on tax rolls, and the university doesn't want to antagonize them. The dishonest public position taken by the university is deplorable. Pittsburgh communities need federal prosecutors to oversee city hall and the University of Pittsburgh.

The assertion is true. At the two hearings before the Planning Commission and one at the Zoning Board of Adjustment, no representatives of the university attended to publicly testify against the development. In a March 3, 2016 letter to Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, I asked him if he would be willing to oppose the Campus Advantage project. He chose silence. Pittsburgh communities need federal prosecutors to oversee city hall and the University of Pittsburgh.

The university will be coming before city council for approval of its Institutional Master Plan. Will the process be as shameful as when, two months ago, UPMC sought the approval of its master plan? Over 60 people testified that they simply wanted a two-week delay to put together their own Community Benefits Agreement. These people were denied. The dominating UPMC administrators received approval of their plan.

At last week's community meeting, none of Oakland's three council members and none of their staff were in attendance. Why? Was it to send a clear signal to university administrators that approval of their Institutional Master Plan is a done deal, and that the voices of opposition from the community, like those at the UPMC hearings, are meaningless and irrelevant? Pittsburgh communities need federal prosecutors to oversee city hall and the University of Pittsburgh.